- Fighting dictatorships is like defying gravity. Unless these regimes are already upside down.
- We read a lot about violent collapse of Yugoslavia and find nonviolent dissolution of Czechoslovakia boring and no newsworthy.
- Nationalism is a slavery to an infallibility of the state. Patriotism is the liberty to disobey that state.
- All dictators are the same. They are boring, ugly and smell like death. Civl resistance that challenges them must be witty, beautiful and infused with life.
- Coalition building in civil resistance is a cooker of ideas and mixture of positive tensions. Skill is to use these vibes to weave unity.
- Engagement in civil resistance builds our skills and expertise. This is why, regardless of the eventual outcome, we are better citizens if forged in civil resistance fire.
- Violence on the part of the movement’s radicals consolidates the opponents as much as it polarizes movement’s supporters. A tactic that unifies the movement and divides the opponent is strategically best option for resisters.
- Prefigurative powers of civil resistance are reflected in collective acting by people as if their freedom was already here.
- How existence becomes resistance? When the life is affirmed and the goal of self attainment and community empowerment is being realized by locals despite domestic or foreign oppression.
- Dictators are not as strong as they believe they are. Their material powers have little force when faced with organized and disciplined people.
- People are not as weak as they think they are as long as they strategize and gauge smartly risks and benefits of their political actions.
- Do the movements fail or do they just not succeed yet? For many successful movements their initial failures paved the way to the ultimate victory.
- Victims must be their own liberators. Seemingly disempowered hold the key to their own liberation if only they unlock their collective powers.
Maxims on Civil Resistance part II
Maxims on Civil Resistance part I
Tags: civil resistance, epigram, maxims, nonviolent actions, power of nonviolent action
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